I made the difference in the life of a child today.

[Rain Man]

I really hate that "made a difference" saying. Really hate it. Not sure why I used it other than sarcasm since I hate it so much.

But anyway, I finished up a meeting today and was walking home when I stopped at the mall. I had to send an e-mail and it's a good place to people watch, so I bought a frozen yogurt (I love that pay-by-the-ounce frozen yogurt concept) and found a seat near the escalators.

At one point while I was working, I ended up noticing a girl who was about three years old, and it became obvious that she had no parent around. She was just wandering around. So long story short, I went and got her, and after about ten minutes I and the Cinnabon counter girl and another couple managed to reunite her with some rather frantic parents who'd lost her and were literally running around the mall trying to find her. (The Cinnabon girl didn't know how to reach mall security, which I found rather interesting, and we found the parents before we got word to mall security.)

But the part that got me thinking was that there's a risk for a 40-something guy to go approach a lost three year-old girl. If you walk up at the wrong time, you get tackled by a parent and get arrested as a stranger abduction pervert and you end up on the sex offender registry after being brutalized in prison for a period of time of not less than six to ten years, and no one's ever going to believe that you were trying to help. So as soon as I confirmed she was lost, I immediately steered her toward the teenage girl who was running the Cinnabon, because she would qualify as a trusted person more than I would. Kind of sad, really.

[KurtCobain]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm starting to think that the best option would have been for Chiefs Rool to simply kill the kid and bury him in the basement.

Nobody would've ever known.

[ThaVirus]

Like most arguments, there's some good reasoning and truth on both sides.. But I'd have to say you guys attacking him are being d-bags. In this day and age, I think we can all admit that shit is pretty ****ed up. We have people suing McDonalds for getting fat and spilling coffee on themselves for Christ's sake! It isn't a ridiculous stretch of the imagination to think that his name could be tarnished off a faulty accusation. The media is very powerful, and people's imaginations even moreso.

In the end, I think ChiefsRool WAS being over-paranoid and SHOULD HAVE HELPED THE KID; but I'm not sharpening my pitchfork on his ass for it either. He had good reason to be a little skeptical (given the situation and this day and age).

[RedNFeisty]

I think you guys are being a little harsh on Chiefs Rool, the dude does have a small point to this story. If the parents are bad enough to let their 7/8 yr old child roam the streets a few miles from their home, then hard telling what crap they would pull out of their ass if a strange male brought that child home in his car.

Now with that being said, Chiefs Rool, you could have helped the child by walking him home or calling the police to take care of it, rather then just turning your back.

Rain Man, kuddos for helping the little girl and directing her over to the Cinnabon girl.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by ClayWhit

Can you elaborate on this pay by the ounce frozen yogurt?

What sort of godforsaken wasteland do you live in that doesn't have froyo joints yet? Fayetteville has three of them now for god's sakes. The venerable TCBY franchise is in the process of switching their businesses over to that model. A couple of other big chains are Orange Leaf and Three Spoons. I bet you have one nearby. They're pretty awesome.

[Omaha]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

I drive past a Cinnabon location almost daily. Never stop. Am I ****ing up ?

No.

[FAX]

Just a word of caution for some of you guys who live in Oklahoma.

If you purchase 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small Cinnabon and stack them up on your head in that order, it looks like you're wearing a cow patty hat.

FAX

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by RedNFeisty

Now with that being said, Chiefs Rool, you could have helped the child by walking him home or calling the police to take care of it, rather then just turning your back.

Ditto. I do agree with him to the extent that there's no way in hell I would just up and stick him in my car to drive him home, but I definitely would have asked the kid to stick around while I called the cops.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I figured it was everywhere by now. I first encountered it in Juneau when I was in Alaska last year, and now they're popping up all over Denver.

It's one of the eight greatest things on earth. You go in and pick up a bowl. You are then faced with a self-serve array of multiple types of frozen yogurt, which you can put in the bowl in any variety and quantity you want. For example, today I went with a quadrocopia of chocolate, vanilla, hawaiian paradise, and "original tart". You then move to the salad bar-like toppings area where you can apply toppings in any combination and amount you like. They usually have about three dozen toppings ranging from fresh fruit to chocolate chips to Fruity Pebbles to candy chocolate rocks. Today, I went with small chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, caramel chocolate cups, a brownie, and some hot fudge. You then take the concoction up to the counter and set it on a scale, and pay some exorbitant by-the-ounce price that is staggering, but at the same time you had the ability to make exactly the perfect frozen yogurt dish for that particular moment in your life, so it's worth it. Then you spend the next thirty minutes like a bear working on a honeycomb.

Lol there are like 5 new yogurt places like this opening up in LA every day. There are at least 20 of them within a few miles of my house. It's really out of control. Blows my mind that it could be so popular here and still hasn't hit other areas at all.

Prepare for PinkBerry.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by Jenson71

Contrast these actions with the infamous David Cash/Iverson killing.

Cash and a friend were in a Vegas lobby when they saw a seven year old girl whose father was gambling. Cash and the friend start playing tag with her. She runs into the women's bathroom. The friend follows. Cash follows. The friend puts her in a stall, rapes her, and strangles her. She's dead. In the stall next to them, Cash was standing there, watching it all. He never reported it. He was never charged with any crime. He had no legal duty to stop the rape or report it to anyone. He was interviewed, said he felt as bad about it as he feels for African kids that die everyday (so, not at all).

Both of them were students at Cal (?) I think. Some states have a law that you have to report stuff. Nevada does not (or didn't at the time). The kid who never reported it got harassed but apparently still got a nuclear engineering degree from Cal.

I lived in SF when this happened. Thanks for getting me all pissed/upset about it all over again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Strohmeyer

David Cash

Sherrice Iverson's mother demanded that David Cash, Jr., be charged as an accessory, but authorities stated there was not enough evidence connecting him to the actual crime, and Cash was never prosecuted for any offense related to the murder.

In the weeks following Strohmeyer's arrest, Cash told the Los Angeles Times that he did not dwell on the murder of Sherrice Iverson. "I'm not going to get upset over somebody else's life. I just worry about myself first. I'm not going to lose sleep over somebody else's problems." He also told the newspaper that the publicity surrounding the case had made it easier for him to "score with women." Cash also told the Long Beach Press-Telegram: "I'm no idiot ... I'll get my money out of this."[10][11]

Cash would go on to face being labeled "the bad Samaritan," and also the target of a campaign by students who attempted to get him kicked out of UC Berkeley for not stopping the crime. Two local Los Angeles radio hosts subsequently held a rally to have Cash expelled from the University of California at Berkeley, but University officials stated that they had no basis to remove him since he was not convicted of any crime.

Cash did express equivocal remorse over Iverson's death in a radio interview, stating that "I have a lot of remorse toward the Iverson family. It was a very tragic event...The simple fact remains I don't know this little girl ... I don't know people in Panama or Africa who are killed every day, so I can't feel remorse for them. The only person I know is Jeremy Strohmeyer", but still insisted that he did nothing wrong.[3][12]

The Sherrice Iverson bill

Sherrice Iverson's murder led to the passage of Nevada State Assembly Bill 267, requiring people to report to authorities when they have reasonable suspicions that a child younger than 18 is being sexually abused or violently treated. The impetus for the bill stemmed from the inaction of a witness, and friend of the murderer, who stood by and did nothing during the commission of the crime.

The "Sherrice Iverson" bill, introduced by Nevada State Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins (D-Henderson), provides for a fine and possible jail time for anyone who fails to report a crime of the nature that led to the creation of the bill. The bill was enacted in 2000.[13]

Jesus, after googling this scumbag lives in my city. Ugh. http://www.ripoffreport.com/criminal...mpli-c24cc.htm

[38yrsfan]

I'm not sure what proof or vintage it was but something induced me to share parts of this thread with one my sons.

Something he said was pretty interesting. It seems that some movie or show had a situation where a young kid went up to a house asking for a ride home a few miles away. His story was plausible and he was given a ride. When the car stops, the kid jumps out and runs off. Turns out he was running away from home and only lived a couple blocks away from the guy giving a ride. The guy gets back home to see police cars cruising the neighborhood and door to door search ......

[FAX]

I'm happy to report that, yesterday, I made a difference in the life of an elderly lady.

I was preparing to park my automobile at the local grocery market when an elderly woman in a walker began crossing my path. Apparently, this poor woman was afflicted with arthritis since, every few seconds, she would take one, short, painful step then move her walker a few inches before taking another small, excruciating step. Meanwhile, I suppressed the urge to run her down.

FAX